End of the Beginning [Five]

Epilogue

Emery Lamont was alone.

It shouldn't have been possible. But long ago that word lost its meaning.

Five's hands had been in his. He never let him go. Not for a second. They were learning from their mistakes. They were trying to rewrite a future that had been doomed from the start.

But he was alive. He was alive and he was alone.

The train chimed. It's PA system speaking straightforward English now. And for the first time, Emery could understand it.

One stop only. End of line. Original timeline.

One by one, as if by magic, Emery watched the map plastered on the wall; its intricate lines and stops disappeared one by one as if plucked from their place rapidly by an invisible hand until but one remained.

Emery looked around to either side of him, down the long expanse of the compartment he was in. Nothing. He didn't remember much about what had happened after they jumped. Where the Hargreeves went. Where Five went.

His hand drifted upward to his neck, almost convinced that the ring around it would have disappeared as well. He never belonged to this timeline. He had attempted to disrupt fate. And now he was paying for it.

His fingers found the cool material of the ring and he exhaled sombrely. Eyes pressing shut as he traced the pattern with the pad of his hand, memorizing every chip and dip, every smooth ridge around the band. What would have happened had they not left the strawberry garden timeline? Would they have been happy? Emery decided that, even if they weren't, they were at least together.

The train chimed a time later and Emery peeled his eyes open, acutely aware of the cold lack of presence at his side. He stood, exiting the train onto the only platform left. Even before he turned, to look at the train that had led him to Five, that had cursed him for seven hears, that had now saved him, he knew that it was already fading; disappearing. It had reached its final stop. 

Now what?

It was Five's voice that rang out in his head.

Retirement.

Would have been the response. But now Emery had no answer. He simply didn't know.

Would he repeat the process? Confine himself in isolation, studying and researching earth's mysteries until he figured out what had happened to the rest of his family? He would never rest. But he didn't know if he could do it again— plague his mind with possibilities that he knew weren't even possible.

A laugh broke him from his stupor. And for a horrible moment, Emery feared he was back in Strasbourg. He was back home. He was back at the beginning of everything. The whole thing had been some elaborate dream.

Realizing he'd been dumbly standing on the platform, scarcely moving for who knows how long, Emery placed a hesitant foot down, stepping forward. He kept going, upwards, hand finding the railing as he trod up the steps into this new timeline. The original timeline.

A green field.

Sunny weather, not a cloud in the sky. A summer evening. No longer winter.

The perfect setting. Picturesque. Without flaw. Without marigold.

Alone.

Children played with their families, couples walked hand in hand together, friends sat side by side, talking idly.

Emery looked around, foolishly hoping to catch a glance of Lila and Diego and their family somewhere on the field having a picnic. Klaus and Allison and Claire laughing. Luther and Sloane tucked away behind an expanse of trees as they reconnected.